Spoilt Rotten

[foureleven]

To kind of hope some of the mums from this programme are on here so we can find out what on earth they were thinking of??!?!!

I know this was on BBC on Tuesday but I only saw it last night. At first I thought it was cut and dry - parents fault.

Then when I saw the guy being taught by a doctor how to cut a kiwi fruit (?!) I thought my god, somewhere someone has failed this guy!

And what about the mother with the over weight son... surely she has mental health issues, no?

Also wanted to punch the doctor who's opening line right near the beginning of the program when discussing childhood obesity "we're seeing it more and more now, with more parents working, children speanding more time in front of the TV.."

Well, might as well have got the working mum bashing out of the way right at the start hey??!!

Strangly I was actually less concerned about the cost to the NHS and more concerned with the effect of these parents behaviours on the poor kids.

I mean, they clearly loved their children, the mums who were in hospital with their children having their teeth out were so distraught they made me have a little tear... So if they love them so much why arent they being stronger and saying no to all the sweets.. I suppose its the old 'killing with kindness' thing.

Discuss...

One of the things that makes me laugh about English culture is the obsession that it "was better in the old days" and the inevitable conclusion that it's all the fault of the working classes. Reel after reel of TV footage on these two themes. It couldn't be more different in other countries, you know.

Not all will treat children on NHS. At our practice, the lead dentist won't treat children free, though his partner does for the moment (if parents register as private patients) but has no space to take on more children.

OK, I didn't see the programme but will catch up on iPlayer I expect.

A long time ago I used to work in theatres. Every day we had a dental list, which often includes extractions and sometimes full dental clearances. For children. The kids had a GA, were often distressed and in pain when they woke up. Believe me, I am a nut for dental hygiene with my children.

Haven't read all of the thread, sorry, but saw your early post, SloanyPony, and it sounds like you were thinking exactly the same things that I was when watching!

I wish they could have made some distinction about how much the milk was affecting the teeth compared to the lollipops. My ds has been having milk in the night and I was a bit horrified by this. My hv, when I asked about a year ago, said that it was nothing to worry about because if you lose a tooth they say to put it in a glass of milk to preserve it. Was she entirely wrong? As it is, for the last couple of nights he's had water, and has been unexpectedly ok with it.

Also horrified that the nurse would say that going outside makes no difference. I thought the same - now loads of smoking parents may just think, 'Why bother, I'll stay in here!'. That's got to be worse, surely?

Worried re. the mother of the overweight boy. She seemed to think that 'healthy' foods contain no calories, or somehow don't contribute to the calorie intake because they're 'healthy'. As someone else said above, they seem to shy away from actually talking about calories and quantities because of the emphasis on the quality of food, and she was an example of someone who needed to take the 'calorie-counting' approach from what I could see.

Only just saw this thread, but glad to be able to air my thoughts which have been brewing for a couple of days